The Garden of Unearthly Delights- a curator's notebook, published version (original) (raw)
2016, The Garden of Unearthly Delights- a curator's notebook, published version
This improvised document, which in a better world would be a full-fledged publication, consists of observations made offhandedly, usually written at absurd hours of the morning, in the process of bringing the experiment of an exhibition honoring the Hieronymus Bosch Quincentenary from hypothesis to conclusion without ever having seen most of the work made for it until the day of show installation. These essays were written for the benefit of the participating artists, most of whom knew as little about the overall career of Hieronymus Bosch as I did when I first conceived of the project. I subsequently viewed the Bosch exhibition in 's-Hertogenbosch at my own expense (in fact, this entire project was undertaken without financing of any sort) and immersed myself in a variety of relatively recent scholarly and/or quirky books that purport to interpret Bosch's oeuvre. But when I sent the initial proposal to a select number of potential artists whose work and/or sensibility led me to believe they would possess an interesting perspective on what meaning Hieronymus Bosch might have for us in the 21st century, I knew very little about contemporary Bosch studies beyond the catalogue published by the Noordbrabants Museum. I have learned much since then, but in many ways the mystery surrounding Hieronymus Bosch has only deepened. The pages in this self-published, copyrighted notebook begin with the whimsically transgressive proposal sent to the artists, and continue with the text of successive statements posted to the exhibition's Facebook page.
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The Garden of Unearthly Delights: Hieronymus Bosch in the 21st Century
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"The Garden of Unearthly Delights: Hieronymus Bosch in the 21 st Century" was an exhibition of contemporary art curated by Jerry Cullum and presented at Whitespace gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, August 5-September 3, 2016. This document is a flawed, deliberately provisional, ad hoc, DIY piece done in haste by the curator in recognition of a remarkable collective effort in which twenty-seven or so artists contributed individually to a whole that was far more than the sum of its parts, yet one which would not have succeeded without the value contributed by each of them. It is an experiment that worked against all odds.
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The feast of Epiphany was extremely popular in the visual arts of the late middle ages. This resulted in an abundance of festive depictions, full of exotic figures with lavish costumes and attributes. Hieronymus Bosch also depicted this theme several times. Two of those paintings have been preserved. One belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and the other to the Museo del Prado (Madrid). Both paintings were copied and imitated almost immediately, indicating they were held in high esteem. The early admiration in Bosch's own time is remarkable. With over 30 early copies still in existence, the interpretation of Bosch is one of the most popular compositions in the late medieval Netherlands. The Bosch Research and Conservation Project, which has been researching Bosch's work and studio since 2010, has carefully investigated a number of these copies. The exposition in Het Noordbrabants Museum and the eponymous publication From Bosch's Stable-Hieronymus Bosch and the Adoration of the Magi devotes extensive attention to this imitation.
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in: Jos Koldeweij, Eric de Bruyn (ed.), Jheronimus Bosch. His Sources. International Jheronimus Bosch Conference, May 23-25th 2007, 's-Hertogenbosch 2010, p. 16-29.